"I appreciate all that you have done for me; but you can quit looking for someone like Miss Elizabeth Bennet," said Mr. Darcy.

Lady Matlock's raised eyebrow radiated inquisitiveness.

Mr. Darcy continued "I have found her."

Lady Matlock's squint and frown demanded elucidation.

On the theory that the faster one spewed out facts the less one would be required to explain them, Mr. Darcy said "She took a position as companion to the Dowager Countess of Jeltotford, who was residing at Quickentree Hall in Nottinghamshire. My friend, Bingley, was interested in purchasing that estate and so I looked at it for him and I found her there and one thing led to another and we are engaged." A theory that had been proven false in Mr. Darcy's youth, and was no truer in his majority.

Lady Matlock took a sip of her tea and began her cross examination.

"Did you compromise her again?" she asked.

"There was no compromise the first time." His aunt's stare told Mr. Darcy that his attempt at deflection was unsuccessful. "No, I didn't compromise her – not really – if the gardener saw us, he didn't say anything … " Lady Matlock's raised eyebrow was back. "All we did was …"

Lady Matlock's raised hand stopped Mr. Darcy's guilty confession. "I don't need to hear the details of your reiteration of the age-old story of two young lovers in the garden of earthly delights. I presume that after the fig leaves dropped, and the apple was eaten, you proposed and she accepted."

Mr. Darcy flushed, a flush that on a young maiden would be properly be called a blush. "There were no fig leaves, and we ate scones, not apples." His aunt rolled her eyes, shook her head and looked at the ceiling as if sharing a joke with the judge of us all. Mr. Darcy dug himself a little deeper. "There was none of that, we were perfectly proper." By now his face was full aflame.

"Yet you were worried about the gardener seeing you."

Mr. Darcy put up his hands in surrender. "Please, doesn't it suffice that we are engaged?"

Lady Matlock shook her head. "I think not; after all, you were engaged before. What's different this time?"

"She is willing to marry me this time."

"She said she was willing to marry you last time."

"This time she means it." Mr. Darcy watched his aunt's eyebrow rise again. He was getting really irritated by it. "All our misunderstandings have been resolved …"

"Perhaps her misunderstandings as to how much greater the benefits of being a companion are over those of being the wife of a wealthy gentleman have been resolved."

Mr. Darcy sighed. "She makes no bones about marrying me for mercenary reasons."

"Yet you'd still take her."

"Tell me how many of the candidates you have brought forward for my consideration have had absolutely no mercenary considerations."

Lady Matlock shrugged. "Fair enough; as long as you know that's all there is."

"Oh, she loves me; she just doesn't know it yet."

This time his aunt's eyebrows rose in unison. "And you know this how?"

"When we kissed …" Mr. Darcy's voice faded away when he saw how widely his aunt was grinning at him.

"Lust, my dear boy, pure, unadulterated lust."

"Love, my dear aunt, pure, unadulterated love."

Now it was Lady Matlock's turn to raise her hands in surrender. "I bow to your extensive experience of love. I don't suppose there's any point in trying to talk you out of it." She waited for her nephew to shake his head before she continued. "Do have me round when your uncle, and your favourite aunt, try to talk you out of it – it'll be more entertaining than an opéra bouffe." She laughed at Mr. Darcy's doleful look. "If it must be done, it best be done quickly. Now where and when will the wedding be?"

"We thought at Pemberley at the end of July."

"Nonsense. Everyone is here in town. We will have it here two weeks Tuesday." Lady Matlock glared down Mr. Darcy's objections. "That should give her parents - country gentry, aren't they? - time to get here …"

"There's no need, Miss Bennet and her sisters are estranged from her parents."

"Will she need her father's consent?"

"No, she is of age."

"And who will be acting on her behalf vis-à-vis the marriage settlement?"

"Officially, her Uncle Gardiner, who is a merchant in Cheapside, and her brother, Bingley."

"Officially?"

"In actuality, her elder sister, Mrs. Bingley. I mean no impertinence when I say that she is cut from the same cloth and pattern as my true favourite aunt."

"Really? I must meet this paragon."

"I was hoping you would say that. Bingley tells me that she a plan for explaining away the jilting."

"Which is?"

"He won't say, he can't say actually. Apparently only you and Mrs. Bingley can be privy to the details."

"Now I really must see her. Do you have her address? I will send round an invitation for tea. In the meantime, you should be off to Lambeth Palace to procure a special license. Don't be shy about dropping your uncle's name. He and the Archbishop go way back."

"But don't you have other questions about the wedding? I can …"

Lady Matlock ticked off items on her fingers. She only needed two. "You are to complete the marriage settlement and obtain the license. I presume that you still have the ring from your first trip around the may pole. Otherwise, you just have to show up at the appointed day and time, clean and sober." She shook her finger at him. "Sober. Mrs. Bingley and I will take care of the rest." She made a shooing motion at him. "Now begone."